How does basic research improve innovation performance in the world’s major pharmaceutical firms?
利用1995-2015年大型制药企业数据，研究发现内部基础研究通过增强吸收能力和直接创新两条路径提升绩效，且吸收能力路径更重要；近年直接创新作用增强，企业基础研究投入更精准。
Employing a panel (1995–2015) of large R&D spending pharmaceutical firms, we investigate how internal basic research increases a firm’s innovative performance. We disentangle two mechanisms through which internal basic research affects technology development: (1) as strengthening of the firm’s absorptive capacity to build on externally conducted science, and (2) as a direct source of the firm’s innovation. We find that the positive relationship between internal basic research and innovation performance is significantly mediated by these two mechanisms, with the absorptive capacity mechanism relatively more important. The mediation relationships are more pronounced in recent years, with basic research as a direct source of innovation increasing in importance. This pattern is associated with a decline of corporate investments in basic research over time, and suggests that firms have adopted a more judicious and targeted approach to basic research aimed at getting more leverage out of a smaller commitment to basic research.